Table Of Contents:
Introduction xix

Witter Bynner (1881--1968)

Defeat 1(1)

Ezra Pound (1885--1972)

from Canto LXXXIII 2(1)

H. D. (1886--1961)

R.A.F. 3(9)

Robinson Jeffers (1887--1962)

Pearl Harbor 12(2)

The Bloody Sire 14(1)

Marianne Moore (1887--1972)

``Keeping Their World Large'' 15(2)

Conrad Aiken (1889--1973)

Three Star Final 17(1)

Charles Reznikoff (1894--1976)

from By the Well of Living and Seeing 18(2)

Vladimir Nabokov (1899--1977)

``When he was small, when he would fall'' 20(1)

Allen Tate (1899--1979)

Ode to Our Young Pro-consuls of the Air 21(5)

Yvor Winters (1900--1968)

To a Military Rifle 26(1)

Moonlight Alert 27(1)

Night of Battle 28(1)

Eve Triem (1902--1992)

The Witness 29(2)

Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)

The Fury of Aerial Bombardment 31(1)

A Ceremony by the Sea 32(2)

from Aesthetics After War: Instruments 34(3)

Louis Zukofsky (1904--1978)

from A Song for the Year's End 37(2)

Stanley Kunitz (b. 1905)

Reflection by a Mailbox 39(1)

Careless Love 40(1)

W. H. Auden (1907--1973)

September 1, 1939 41(4)

Lincoln Kirstein (1907--1996)

Snatch 45(1)

Patton 46(6)

Rank 52(3)

P.O.E. 55(2)

George Oppen (1908--1984)

Survival: Infantry 57(1)

from Of Being Numerous 58(1)

Charles E. Butler (1909--1981)

Rifle Range: Louisiana 59(1)

Robert Fitzgerald (1910--1985)

Pacific 60(1)

Amphibians 60(2)

Winfield Townley Scott (1910--1968)

Three American Women and a German Bayonet 62(2)

Ben Belitt (b. 1911)

The Spool 64(4)

Alfred Hayes (1911--1985)

The City of Beggars 68(2)

Hyam Plutzik (1911--1962)

The Airman Who Flew Over Shakespeare's England 70(2)

William Everson (1912--1994)

The Raid 72(2)

Woody Guthrie (1912--1967)

The Blinding of Isaac Woodard 74(3)

May Sarton (1912--1995)

Navigator 77(1)

John Frederick Nims (1913--1999)

Shot Down at Night 78(1)

Karl Shapiro (1913--2000)

Scyros 79(2)

Troop Train 81(1)

Full Moon: New Guinea 82(1)

Lord, I Have Seen Too Much 83(1)

Homecoming 83(2)

John Berryman (1914--1972)

The Moon and the Night and the Men 85(2)

Randall Jarrell (1914--1965)

Eighth Air Force 87(1)

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner 88(1)

Transient Barracks 88(1)

O My Name It Is Sam Hall 89(1)

A Camp in the Prussian Forest 90(2)

Weldon Kees (1914--1955)

June 1940 92(1)

The City as Hero 93(1)

William Stafford (1914--1997)

At the Grave of My Brother: Bomber Pilot 94(1)

Explaining the Big One 94(1)

Some Remarks When Richard Hugo Came 95(1)

Men 96(1)

Edward R. Weismiller (b. 1915)

To the Woman in Bond Street Station 97(1)

John Ciardi (1916--1986)

Song 98(1)

Elegy Just in Case 99(2)

V-J Day 101(1)

A Box Comes Home 102(1)

Elegy for a Cove Full of Bones 103(2)

Thomas McGrath (1916--1990)

Homecoming 105(1)

Remembering That Island 106(2)

Peter Viereck (b. 1916)

Kilroy 108(2)

``Vale'' from Carthage 110(1)

Ripeness Is All 111(1)

Peter Bowman (1917--1985)

from Beach Red 112(3)

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917--2000)

Negro Hero 115(3)

Robert Lowell (1917--1977)

On the Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception: 1942 118(1)

The Bomber 119(2)

Memories of West Street and Lepke 121(3)

William Bronk (1918--1999)

Soldiers in Death 124(1)

Memorial 125(1)

William Jay Smith (b. 1918)

Epithalamium in Olive Drab 126(1)

Pidgin Pinch 127(1)

Columbus Circle Swing 128(1)

Robert Duncan (1919--1988)

A Spring Memorandum: Fort Knox 129(3)

William Meredith (b. 1919)

Navy Field 132(1)

Love Letter from an Impossible Land 133(3)

Simile 136(2)

Ann Darr (b. 1920)

Flight as a Way of Life 138(1)

Howard Nemerov (1920--1991)

A Fable of the War 139(1)

A Memory of the War 140(1)

Night Operations, Coastal Command RAF 141(1)

The War in the Air 141(1)

IFF 142(2)

Hayden Carruth (b. 1921)

On a Certain Engagement South of Seoul 144(3)

John Pauker (1921--1991)

Jethro Somes' Apostrophe to His Former Comrades 147(1)

Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)

Mined Country 148(1)

First Snow in Alsace 149(1)

Place Pigalle 150(2)

James Dickey (1923--1997)

The Firebombing 152(11)

Alan Dugan (b. 1923)

Memorial Service for the Invasion Beach Where the Vacation in the Flesh Is Over 163(1)

Portrait from the Infantry 164(1)

Self-Exhortation on Military Themes 165(1)

Stentor and Mourning 166(2)

Anthony Hecht (b. 1923)

from Rites and Ceremonies: The Room 168(2)

``More Light! More Light!'' 170(2)

Still Life 172(2)

Richard Hugo (1923--1982)

Where We Crashed 174(4)

Spinizzola: Quella Cantina La 178(2)

Note from Capri to Richard Ryan on the Adriatic Floor 180(2)

Louis Simpson (b. 1923)

Arm in Arm 182(1)

Carentan O Carentan 183(2)

Memories of a Lost War 185(1)

Old Soldier 186(1)

On the Ledge 187(2)

A Bower of Roses 189(4)

Edgar Bowers (1924--2000)

The Stoic: For Laura Von Courten 193(2)

Edward Field (b. 1924)

World War II 195(6)

John Haines (b. 1924)

Mothball Fleet: Benicia, California 201(2)

Harvey Shapiro (b. 1924)

Battle Report 203(3)

War Stories 206(3)

Lucien Stryk (b. 1924)

Sniper 209(1)

Kenneth Koch (1925--2002)

To Carelessness 210(1)

To World War Two 210(4)

Samuel Menashe (b. 1925)

Beachhead 214(1)

W. D. Snodgrass (b. 1926)

Ten Days Leave 215(1)

Returned to Frisco, 1946 216(2)

James Tate (b. 1943)

The Lost Pilot 218(5)
Biographical Notes 223(20)
Sources and Acknowledgments 243(8)
Notes 251(5)
Index of Titles and First Lines 256